Balancing The Books
by Belladonna4
Summary: With a new house in a new town Hayley finds herself slowly ending up getting involved with some new people in new situations. Possible pairings to come later. Rating and Genres will change as the story progresses.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I own nothing Sons Of Anarchy related - it is all from the great mind of Mr Kurt Sutter, long may he reign! I do own my own character.

This is the first fanfic I've written in a long while - it just needed to be released!

Summary: With a new house in a new town Hayley finds herself slowly ending up getting involved with some new people in new situations. Possible pairings to come later.

..

Pulling her red truck up the driveway Hayley took her second look at the place she'd now call home. It wasn't much to look at, fitting in with all the others in the neighbourhood, but she was just happy to have a place of her own with its own garden, driveway and front door. Having spent the past 10 years moving from flat to hotel room to flat again she was just grateful for the fact that there wasn't anyone living on the other side of her four walls.

Hayley had just left her last job as an accountant for a large, world-wide firm and had finally decided to settle down in one place, doing her accounting work mainly from home without having to travel around the world at the drop of a hat. At 29 she had achieved what the large majority of people her age hadn't and had saved up enough money in her well-paying job to buy her own property.

Starting to unload the trailer she took another look around the neighbourhood. It was relatively early on a Sunday morning, she had stopped at a motel overnight to ensure she'd have most of today to unpack and organise, and she noted that the house next door had a Harley parked up on the drive. Other than that the rest of the houses faded into one, only the occasional flowerbed breaking up the repetitiveness.

'Hmm, wonder what they'd think if I painted this thing lime green?' Hayley thought with a smile as she took one of the boxes into the kitchen. Whilst she liked the idea of a friendly neighbourhood with people watching out for each other, she wasn't one for being little miss suburbia and liked the idea of fitting in but not too much. Just enough to get her over-looked so she could just live her life without interruptions. Not that she had any reason to - she had just never been one for going out socialising all the time, one of the ways she had gotten so far in her job. 

Finally putting the last of her boxes in the right room she quickly rummaged through a box and found the kettle with a well wrapped mug. Digging into her overnight/essentials bag she found her bag of teabags that she'd got on regular delivery from the UK as it turned out that a proper brew wasn't the same over here as it was in the UK. She'd also thought ahead enough to pocket a few of those milk tubes from the motel – ready for when she hadn't yet popped out for her grocery shop. 

With cup of tea to hand she started unpacking, happy to think that she didn't need to worry about how easy or quickly everything had to be to pack up again at a moment's notice. She had decided to turn the smaller bedroom into her office and took the larger bedroom at the back as hers. It was whilst she was unpacking her books in the office that she heard the bike's engine roar and she caught sight of it as it headed off round the corner. She wasn't a bike expert by any stretch of the imagination but she knew a nice bike when she saw one and also knew which ones she liked. 

It didn't take much longer before all the boxes were unpacked and her new place was ready to be lived in. She had arranged for the moving company to arrive with all her furniture the day before and had even paid extra for it all to be set up or put together and put in the right rooms so she didn't have to worry about that when she got there. It had been well worth the extra money just to avoid the stress of looking for the right screws and wondering where the heck she'd put the right sized allen key! With everything done she decided it was about time that the grocery shop should, hopefully, be open on a Sunday. Unhitching her trailer, with a fair amount of huffing and cursing, she was soon headed on her way into Charming high street. 

The grocery shop seemed to be one of the only places open and Hayley gratefully pulled up outside, her shopping list already written down in her mind. The high street was a change from what she was used to seeing, there wasn't a chain coffee shop or big brand store in sight, and most of the shops looked like they were family run businesses that had seen generations pass through their doors. This is why Hayley had chosen to move here, the calm pace of life and quaint aspect of the town made her feel more relaxed and more at home than when she had lived in cities or towns with high aims to attract the 'commuter class'.

.. 

Her grocery shopping done she was driving back home, really liking the feeling that came with that word, when she heard a roar of engines and she saw about five or six motorbikes turn out of the local garage in front of her. 'Well, I guess it's a nice enough day for a Sunday ride, but what the heck's up with those leather vests?' They were wearing leather vests with some thing on the back, but she didn't have time to make out what it was before the distance between them was too great. The rest of the drive back was fairly uneventful, her mobile only going off once 'Thank goodness for hands free' and it wasn't even work related. Her friend and old work colleague, Rob, had decided to call to make sure she was moved in safely and was hoping for an excuse to take a holiday if she needed help. After turning down that offer she found she was back at her place and there seemed to be someone heading towards her doorstep.

Stepping out the car she saw the woman turn round at the sound of the door closing. She was an older woman but well dressed and with a figure to die for.

"Hey there darlin', saw your trailer parked up and figured you'd finally moved in. Thought I'd pop round and be neighbourly." Dressed in leathers and with killer heeled boots Hayley didn't take her for the neighbourly type, but as she was new to the area who was she to judge. Anyway, she looked nice enough and she did have cookies in one hand, always a winner.

"Oh wow, thank you, that's very thoughtful. Would you like to come in? You may want to watch out for the boxes though, sorry." With that, Hayley unlocked her door and let them both in, balancing her grocery bag in one arm and hoping the flattened boxes didn't topple over.

..

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~GEMMA POV ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The house next to them had been up for sale for a while; the old man had to move out after his wife had died and it seemed that potential buyers after that had been put off by the obvious, noisy biker crowd that had conveniently gathered next door whenever they'd come looking. However, this girl hadn't seemed too bad and had somehow managed to get her viewing in the morning, when all the Sons had been sleeping off the night before. Before long the 'For Sale' sign had been replaced with 'Sold' and the next thing they knew a moving van had pulled up and started moving in the furniture.

It seemed that this woman had paid extra for movers who'd put all the furniture together at the end of it as well as put away the crockery and other stuff. Gemma admired her planning ahead and had been watching it all happen, wondering if the furniture could give her a clue about what this new neighbour was like. It had all seemed so 'samey' but she had noticed there was only one bed going in, a double bed, but that meant there was only likely to be a couple at the most, and no kids. Other than that the furniture told her nothing and she realised that she'd just have to wait until she turned up before she could be nosey.

It wasn't that Gemma really cared about the new neighbour, but she did want to make sure this one wasn't going to be a threat or pain in the ass to her or anyone in the club. If that meant going over and acting neighbourly then that was something she was willing to do. That was why, when she woke up this morning and saw the pick up and trailer in the drive grabbed a half empty packet of cookies out of her cupboard and emptied them into a bowl, just to give her a reason to go over later.

It hadn't been much longer after Clay had left that she'd seen the new girl come out and go to unhitch her trailer so she could drive off 'probably needs some food in there, bet she hasn't got a bite to eat'. She wasn't much to look at, if she had been a bit shorter and more 'petite' she probably would've been a lot prettier, as it was she was quite tall with an athletic build - more a swimmer's than anything else – and plain dark brown, short hair with quite pale skin. Although she turned a lovely shade of red hefting that trailer around, if one of the boys had been around Gemma would've been tempted to send them out to give her a hand. As it was she just continued to watch and then, about the time she figured she'd be back, headed out with plate of cookies in hand and 'friendly neighbour' look on her face.

As Gemma entered the house she realised she hadn't even caught the woman's name so, stepping around the boxes inside the front door, immediately went to change that;

"The name's Gemma, by the way. You've been pretty quick unpacking this morning." The place looked like she'd moved in weeks ago not this morning, heck she'd known people who still had half empty boxes from moving years ago.

"Oh right, yeah, sorry. I'm Hayley. Thanks, I think I've got it down to a fine art by now. That or I'm too organised for my own good. Would you like a coffee or something?" Moving into the kitchen she placed the paper bag on the side and put the kettle on to boil, grabbing two mugs from the cupboard.

"That'd be great thanks. Here, I brought some cookies as a housewarming." Gemma handed them over whilst looking round the inside of the house. It was relatively organised for a place that had just been moved into, there were still framed paintings and prints on the floor in a corner and a few ornaments that hadn't found their rightful place but that was to be expected.

She realised that Hayley had noticed the inspection and felt defensive, "I'm not quite sure whether I'm going to be re-painting or keeping the neutral colours so, until I decide I thought I'd keep the pictures to one side." Stirring the coffee she handed a mug to Gemma and, picking up the cookies moved into the living room.

.. 

~~~~~~~~~~~ 3RD PERSON P.O.V ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

.. 

The two women sat at either end of the sofa eyeing each other up. Gemma in her tight jeans, leather jacket & boots and Hayley in her regular jeans, loose t-shirt and trainers, they both made an obvious contrast in looks and personality.

"So what brings little miss English to Charming, this isn't exactly an international hub of activity?" Gemma sat back, inspecting Hayley over the rim of the mug.

"Well, I passed through here about 3 years ago and loved how it wasn't some commercialised town that looked like every other one and so, now I've allowed myself to finally settle down I thought about this place and just had to move here. It's small and lovely and definitely something I could get used to." Hayley sat back, this woman definitely had an aura of control around her, like she was used to being in control and having people look up to her. It was intimidating and Hayley was glad that they were just meeting as neighbours and not having an argument.

Finishing up their coffee the two women soon went their separate way; Gemma to contemplate what she knew about her new neighbour and Hayley to unpack her groceries, thinking about what she had learnt about the neighbourhood and town.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~End Ch. 1 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

..

Just a chapter to start the ball rolling, hope you enjoyed. Feel free to read & review :)


	2. Chapter 2

Thanks to everyone who reviewed the last (first) chapter! It was definitely unexpected :O

Spy Glass: I'm sorry the changes between P.O.V were confusing for you, I'll try to tone them down but I can't feasibly do it from just one p.o.v (especially not 3rd person) as that would take away from what I have in mind. I will try to keep one person's P.O.V throughout most of the chapter so as to cutdown on breaks, I hope that helps and thanks for the feedback :D

Thank you Olive. branch3 & darkroseofwolf. Also, sorry ILoveThee but no clues yet, it's gonna turn into a bit of a long one if my writing bug has any say in this... but hey, hopefully it'll surprise you, in a good way.

Disclaimer: Once again I own nothing but I'm so glad that SOA is in the hands (and mind) of the genius that is Mr Kurt Sutter!

Now, on with the Chapter:

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It had been over a week since Hayley had moved in and so far she'd found herself really settling into the slower speed that this town ran at. She'd worked out her running route and had now got into a routine of early morning runs, tea on her decking and then working through any small jobs that arrived in her e-mails. Occasionally, towards the late afternoon she'd go for a walk around or drive into town to walk around and look at the shops, if the ice cream parlour just happened to be on her way round then who was she to resist that temptation?

Her relationship with Gemma hadn't progressed beyond much more than the occasional hello or a brief chat over the fence. She'd seen Gemma's husband, Clay, once or twice but apart from a small nod of recognition that was as far as she'd come to getting to know him. Another man had visited the house a few days ago; he was younger and had blonde hair that came down to just above his shoulders and a beard. She had noticed that he and Clay both wore the leather vests that she'd seen on her first day here and, now she had managed to sneak a closer look at them, she quickly figured out that they were either part of a motorbike club or part of a gang. Either way she wasn't sure if she wanted to know or find out, she had heard reports about biker gangs and was quite happy staying out of the way and keeping oblivious - just in case.

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Tuesday morning found Hayley just logging into to check her e-mails when she heard a knock at the door. Quickly getting up she walked out the office and towards the front door. Opening it she was surprised to find Clay standing on her doorstep, shades already on, and looking even more imposing up close. He had a good 2 inches on her, and she was a hair under 6ft in bare feet, with his grey hair slicked back and a worn, tanned face that gave him an air of being in control. 'Wow, he and Gemma must be forces to be reckoned with when they work together!'

"Morning, can I help you?" Hayley looked up at the man, wondering why he was here when they hadn't even said two words to each other before.

"Morning. You've got brake fluid running out from under your truck, you may wanna get that seen to. And with that amount of fluid on the ground you'll be wanting a tow rather than drive it." His voice was gravelly and could probably be put to good use when he was angry. She looked behind him at Big Red, her truck, there was definitely a decent amount of fluid running down the slope ofher driveway.

"Oh great, thanks for letting me know. I don't suppose you know a good mechanic? Preferably with a tow – truck?" She'd hazarded a guess that he may have something to do with the garage she'd seen the bikers come out of, their vests looked pretty similar, and hoped that he could give her some helpful information about who to call etc.

"I'll call two of my guys to come out here with a truck and take it to the garage. It shouldn't take too long to get it fixed." She noticed he was looking her up and down, as if sizing her up, and then she realised something - she was in the comfiest, scruffiest clothes she had and walking around in bare feet. "We ain't really met before, name's Clay Morrow, owner of Teller-Morrow Garage." With that said a smirk appeared on his face and he turned and walked back to where he'd stopped his bike.

.

True to his word it wasn't too much longer before she saw a tow truck pull up outside and, making sure she was a little more presentable, grabbed her car keys and opened the front door. One of the guys was almost to her front door, obviously he was going to be the one doing the talking, whilst the other started to hitch up big red to the back of the truck.

"Hey, so you're my mom's new neighbour? Name's Jax, Clay mentioned you've got a car problem?" This guy flashed her a charmer of a smile and with his messed up blonde hair and bright blue eyes she'd be lying if she said he was unattractive, however it just wasn't in that way that'd probably have most of the female population in Charming falling for him.

"Hi, nice to meet you, I'm Hayley. Yeah, Clay pointed it out to me earlier, thank god. It was good of him to let me know." Jax's eyes opened up a bit & his smile became a bit wider as he heard her speak and Hayley was pretty sure she knew what was coming.

"Hey, nice accent, English right? Don't worry, we'll get your truck sorted in no time, shouldn't be a problem." It was around this time she noticed the second man was walking up to them. He was a bit older than Jax and had greying, brown hair with a beard to match. What was most obvious, however, were his two scars running up from either side of his mouth over his cheeks.

"Alright Jacky-boy, the truck's on. We'll just need the keys lass and someone'll give ya a ring when it's done." To say she was surprised at his Scottish accent was an understatement, it was also quite nice to be reminded of some of her old friends when she was all the way over here.

"Great, thanks so much. Here you go. Seriously, you guys are class for coming over so quickly." Taking the keys the two guys left, the Scotsman taking one look back and smiling at her before getting into the truck.

.

Hayley spent the rest of the day working through a friend's accounts for her, she'd started her own company about 5 years ago and had employed Hayley to help her through the company accounts, which she had managed to do on the side whilst she was still in her last job. Now she was self-employed she could go through all the accounts by herself and have more companies employ her as their outside accountant so they wouldn't have to keep one on in-house all the time.

She was just contemplating putting the kettle on for another cup of tea when she heard another knock on the door 'considering you were looking for a quiet life that's a heck of a revolving door you put in there'. Opening the door revealed Gemma standing on the doorstep.

"Hey darlin', been asked to give ya a lift to the garage to collect your truck, you 'bout ready to go?" She was dressed in the same style clothes as Hayley usually saw her in but this time she had her keys in hand and her black car was parked up, ready to go.

"Sure, just let me chuck on some shoes & grab my bag, I'll be two secs." Slipping on her trainers and grabbing her bag with purse and house keys inside she was soon back at the front door and heading to the car.

Setting off Hayley was a bit worried about the silence going on for the entire drive so she said the first thing that she could think of,

"I met your son when he came to pick up big red, he seemed friendly. It must be nice having him live close by." She knew it sounded like your regular cliché and cheesy opener but her mind had decided to desert her at that moment so that really was the best she could come out with.

"Yeah, it's good. He comes over for dinner once every week or so. Hell, once a month we have the whole group round at mine for a family dinner.' Gemma seemed to quite happy talking about her son and Hayley hadn't realised she had more family, she wondered if they all looked similar to Jax.

"The whole group? You have a big family then? That must be nice." Hayley tried to imagine what it'd be like to have a large family all sat around the one table eating dinner 'Noisy, I bet, and friendly'.

"No, it's not quite like that. You see, the guys that work at the garage are like a family, so we may not be blood related but we're as close as. How about you, sweetie, you miss visiting your folks much with you being so far away?"

"Oh, I don't actually have any parents to miss." Looking over at Gemma's face she noticed that it didn't hold the normal look she expected and hated seeing on most people's faces, although she was encouraging her to carry on, "I grew up in care and spent my time going from foster home to foster home, looking back on it I can say that it definitely helped me prepare for travelling." At that comment she smiled, when she was 18 she'd been living near the border of England & Scotland and so, on her 18th birthday, had decided to cross the border and see what jobs she could get over there.

"Well darling, as long as there ain't a sob story to go along with that we should get along just fine." They were just pulling up into the garage and Hayley spotted big red parked up to the side amongst some other cars. Getting out, she followed Gemma over to what she guessed to be the office, going past a row of parked bikes and a group of guys sat on benches on the way. Amongst them she spotted Jax and the scotsman, along with about 4 other guys, sitting round just smoking and chatting.

.

It didn't take long for Gemma to get the paperwork sorted and handed over the keys and in no time at all Hayley was walking out of the office, straight into someone else coming the opposite way.

"Crap, sorry, really need to watch where I'm going!" She apologised, god that chest was like a brick wall and it hurt.

"Yeah, you should, maybe next time I oughta..." The guy looked annoyed, it didn't help he was looming over her and looking as intimidating as possible. It really didn't help that his curly 'more like wild' black hair and cold blue eyes just added to the creepy factor. Thankfully it was at this moment that Gemma stepped outside and cut him off.

"Tig, I see you've met my new neighbour, Hayley. Think you're the one who worked on her truck brakes, right?" It was like a switch that could be turned on and off, suddenly he'd calmed down and stopped staring straight into her.

"Oh, hey Gemma. Well, at least you're not some short kid who needs a booster to see over the steering wheel, that's a big truck you got there." She thought that was a compliment, kind of. If not, she was going to take it as one.

"Erm, thanks, I like it. Thanks also for fixing it so quickly, I gotta use it to get to a meeting tomorrow, so really cannot thank you enough." It seemed to throw him off being thanked so much but she always had a habit of doing that. "Oh, and thanks for the ride Gemma, you didn't have to."

With that she headed off over to her car, giving a brief wave to where Jax and the Scot were sat. She had to get home and start preparing for her meeting in Lodi tomorrow.

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* * *

><p>Thanks once again for reading folks. I promise there will be a few clues to come later as to who the possible pairing is, but she's not just going to jump into it - sorry.<p>

In the meantime, if you want, why not have a guess at who you think it could be (remember, she hasn't met everyone yet)?

P.S: I'm having serious issues for the spaces between my sections to stay the size I want them - hence the full stops you may spot in there. Sorry.


	3. Explained Absence

Hey all, sorry for the wait on the updating. My laptop charger has been deaded for a while which means that my laptop is without battery. I thought I'd better sneak on my computer at work to tell you all this. After many attempts to fix it myself I gave up and ordered a new one.

Hopefully the new charger will arrive within the next 3-12 working days (what, no 'Express Delivery' option? That sucks!) and by then I shall be able to type out all the things that have been worked out in my head!

Thank you for sticking with me, you're all fab!


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